Sunday, January 31, 2010

Proper introduction of the crew

So with the rough cut of the intro finished using archival photos and film footage, it's time to start filming interviews and location footage.


BTW, let us introduce ourselves.... the crew for the Old Changi Hospital project (tentatively "Haunted Changi"): Andrew Lau- Director/Editor... Sheena Chung - Producer... Audi Khalis - Camera... and Farid Azlam - Sound. That's it, mean and lean bare bones crew.



Audi loves to shoot -- so he's already been filming a lot of behind the scenes footage. BTW, these pics are from the editing session yesterday. Ha, ha... bonus material for the DVD! :)


Saturday, January 30, 2010

Real life horror - Japanese invasion of Singapore, WW2, mass executions

Currently finishing up the intro montage to our film. Basically, it tackles the history of Old Changi Hospital... specifically it's use as military barracks early on during the Japanese invasion of Singapore in World War 2. So we used lots of old 16mm footage from the National Archives. Very cool images... but haunting as well. To think that the Japanese forces executed up to 10,000 civilians and POWs in Singapore is truly horrifying. No wonder Old Changi is considered to be so haunted.


We're not going to share any footage from the movie yet, since we're still in production, but here's some archival photos and a YouTube video about the Japanese invasion of Singapore in WW2. It will hopefully give some perspective on the negative forces at work in during the early phase of Old Changi Hospital's history.




Some archival photos:


Japanese troops marching through Singapore, Feb. 1942


Japanese Ha-Go tanks parading through Singapore, Feb. 1942

Japanese troops guarding prisoners from British Suffolk Regiment, Feb. 1942

Japanese officer with katana sword used for beheadings.

Japanese officers led to hanging after war crimes trial in Singapore


"A Time of Silence" -- Painting by WW2 POW Ron Delavigne
Sources: National Archives and Imperial War Museum

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Starting production on film about Old Changi Hospital

Ok, so this is the official blog page for our indy film "Haunted Changi!" We are planning to do extensive coverage of the Old Changi Hospital in Singapore from it's founding as British military barracks, to Japanese Imperial Forces headquarters during the invasion of Singapore in World War II... and finally to a public hospital in the second half of the 1900's. Now of course, it's abandoned... and supposedly very haunted. We'll see.


Currently, we're editing an intro montage using old archival footages. Then we plan to do some interviews with people who worked in the hospital, or have had experiences there. We've also got an interview lined up with a POW survivor during the Japanese occupation! Should be interesting. Then we hope to film inside Old Changi Hospital -- at least one day and one night. Currently seeking official permission. Anyhow...


We'll be posting updates as the project continues... Stay tuned!

Old Changi Hospital